BEVERLY HILLS, April 19, (THEWILL) – Though issues of killings by Fulani herders had existed around the Benue Valley for many years, the scale and nature of attacks as well as motives were completely different from what now persists. AUSTINE JOR reports from Makurdi.
Very often, skirmishes between pastoralist and farmers were either settled by local chiefs with a fine to be paid by the party that was found to have trampled on the other’ s busineses, being it the destruction of farms by cattles or the killing of cattles by farmers.
In Benue, the manner in which the herdsmen have advanced in carrying out attacks[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
on villages in recent years, killing, burning and occupying settlements according to findings by THEWILL is a fallout of the Anti- Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law that was signed into law in 2017 by Governor Samuel Ortom upon its passage by the Benue State House of Assembly.
The law, which came into effect in the latter half of the year after a grace period, was believed to be the way out of constant farmers herders’ crises which had taken a terrible toll on the Benue economy as a people who eke out their livelihoods through the practice of agriculture.
Upon assenting to the law by the governor, , several pastoralist organisations called for an immediate reversal of same and went a step further to issue out threats that should the law not repealed, Benue was on a verge of witnessing an unprecedented amount of blood shed.
Prominent among the groups was the Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore, which during a press conference in Abuja, made this security threat public.
Sadly, efforts by the Benue State Government and other concerned interest at getting Security Agencies to apprehend leaders of this groups for prosecution have landed on deaf ears as none of such groups had any of their leadership invited by any security organisation.
According to our investigations, Governor Ortom, who did not take the threats lightly, reported the matter to Vice President Yemi Osibajo, who was at the time acting President as well as the Chief of Army Staff, the Inspector General of Police and other security bodies.
It was further gathered that even with the governor’s report, nothing meaningful was seen to have been done with a view to nipping the impending mayhem on Benue communities as threatened by the Kautal Hore group who continued to hold press conferences in Abuja in addition to issuing same on both print and the electronic media.
Such was the apprehension that pervaded Benue communities with the herders trying very hard to change the narrative, Insisting they were bonafide indigenes of the state and not settlers and the enforcers of the law, insisting that anybody willing to carry out cattle business in Benue should embrace ranching.
As the media war continued to rage, the Fulani militia group made real their threat on the 1 January 2018 in the early hours. They invaded over six communities where they unleashed their dastardly acts on the unsuspecting villagers, killing 72 persons in one- fell swoop, according to available records.
Pregnant women had their wombs striped off while children were also not spared in the act of infamy by the suspected Fulani killer squad.
Houses were razed and property valued hundreds of millions of Naira reportedly destroyed, causing a huge humanitarian crises.
The killings which attracted wide condemnation, even beyond the country, could not still get those concerned to act fast as investigations revealed that none of the leaders of the group was either arrested nor invited for questioning.
The Benue State Government, rights groups and cultural groups including the Tiv Youth Organization (TYO), the umbrella body of Tiv Youth worldwide, followed with several appeals and petitions yet, it was gathered federal authorities remained aloof in tracking down those who carried out the carnage alongside their sponsors for onward prosecution.
Conspiracy theories, it was learnt, became the norm with the Federal Government and its agencies popping up different narratives as to the group that attacked, killed and sacked Tiv villages on the 1 January 2018.
As the accusations and counter accusations continued, the suspected herders, again, attacked a Catholic Church in Gwer East Local Government area of the state, killing two priests, Rev. Fathers Joseph Gor and Philip Tyolaha, alongside several parishioners on a Sunday morning.
Here too, no single individual was arrested and the killings continued unabated across the state with the southern part of the state also not spared. The case of Agatu readily comes to mind.
The insistence on the full implementation of the law in the state against powerful interest at Abuja, it was also gathered, forced Ortom to ditch the All Progressives Congress for the Peoples Democratic Party in the build up to the 2019 general elections as findings showed the APC has already positioned a replacement for him as punishment for his insistence on not repealing the law in the state.
The renewed attacks, shortly after Ortom’s re-election, is, therefore, viewed in certain quarters as a second phase of the planned take-over of the Benue Valley by the herders for reasons some, who spoke to THEWILL, disclosed were also political.
Only few weeks ago, Ortom was attacked by people he alleged were Fulani militia thus lending credence to the fact that the second phase of the planned carnage, if not properly checked, could even be more disastrous with its consequences better imagined.
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